How to reclaim 1GB from your Android's disk space

Using a disk space analyzer, I was surprised to see that my Android tablet had 1.03GB of photos. This was odd to me, because I knew there were only a couple of photos on the device.

I pinpointed the problem to thumbnails. These are tiny copies of photos used by some apps to more quickly display pictures. Specifically, the 1GB was being taken up by a thumbnail index file, and I didn't need to lose that 1GB to a function I don't use on the tablet. I erased the file as follows:

1. Open a file manager on Android. I use File Manager from Rhythm Software.

2. Ensure that it can display system or hidden files. This is an option somewhere under Settings. In File Manager, tap Menu > Settings > Show Hidden Files.

3. Navigate to \mnt\sdcard\DCIM\ .thumbnails. By the way, DCIM is the standard name for the folder that holds photographs, and is the standard for pretty much any device, whether smartphone or camera; it is short for "digital camera IMages." Another BTW: when a folder name is prefixed with a period, then it is a hidden folder in Android (such as .thumbnails).

4. Select and erase the file that's about 1GB and contains the word 'thumbdata." The exact file name will vary.

After I did this, image viewing apps like Gallery operated just fine, with no apparent slowdown from the loss of this file.

In this way I freed up 1GB on my Android v4 tablet, 1GB on my Android v4 phone, and 750MB on an older Android v2 phone.

Keeping the 1GB Free

Because .thumbdata is a system file, Android recreates it. Indeed, you may find more than one copy in the .thumbnails folder, if you have reinstalled Android or similarly redid the system in some way.

To keep Android from creating the 1GB file anew, we need to create a dummy file that fools Android. In short, we create a text file with a text editor, and then move it to the thumbnails folder. Here are the steps to doing this:

1. Use File Manager to determine the exact name of the thumbnail index file. On one of my Android devices, the name is .thumbdata3--1967290299. Write it down.

2. Start a text editor or word processor on the Android, and then create a new text file.

3. Use the Save As command to save the file in the DCIM folder. (We move it to the .thumbnails folder in a later step.) Save it with the same name at that index file, such as ".thumbdata3--1967290299". Now, depending on the text editor's capabilities, it might not allow the "." prefix or a blank extension. Thus, you might end up with thumbdata3--1967290299.txt as the file name. We fix this in a later step.

4. Exit the text editor, and then switch to File Manager. Now, it is important you use a file manager like Rhythm Software's File Manager app, because it does what some others cannot: it can (a) rename file extensions and (b) access hidden folders.

5. In File Manager, navigate to the \DCIM\ .thumbnails folder. If the thumbdata3 file is there again, erase it again.

6. Move up a level to the \DCIM folder, and then right-click the thumbdata3--1967290299.txt file name. ("Right click" means hold your finger down on the name until a menu appears.)

7. From the menu, choose Rename, and then rename thumbdata3--1967290299.txt to .thumbdata3--1967290299 -- (a) add the dot (.) to the start of the file name, and (b) erase the ".txt" from the end of the file name.

8. Click OK (or Rename) to finish renaming.

9. Right click the file name, and then choose Move (or Cut).

10. Navigate down to the .thumbnails folder, and then tap Paste.

The dummy file will now prevent Android from creating the huge index file.

Comments

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Awesome! THANKYOU SO MUCH! This was easy and it worked. 1200 MB free! I feel like I just won the lottery. I'm sharing this link with everyone.... just as soon as I catch my breath from dancing around my living room.... YES!

Hello.. well your technique has at least removed the thumbdata file but it doesnt have effect on my memory..
previously, my phone was having a free space of approx 900 MB. now even after removing 2 thumbdata files of apporx 450 MB its still shows 1.0 GB free space in my phone..
it should be around 1.8 GB ..
can u help me..

I have Sony Xperia L. Above procedure of deleting thumnail file & creating dummy file with same name works only for 2-3 days, the mobile agains creates thubmnail file of 2gb. Is there any permanent solution to this?

That was the best instruction for a slightly technical programmer-y process I've ever seen in the history of the internet!

Thank you, kind genius.

Followed your steps to a T and, if that thumbnail creation business stops, you just got me back 3.2gb on my annoying Nexus 4--Don't get me wrong, I love the phone, but the no external memory business has been such a pain over the last year that I'm probably ditching Google devices.

I would love recommendations on possible replacement phones, as I am due for a new one and, as I said, am not interested in phones that limit you to XXgb+Cloud. I shudder to think how much time I've spent managing storage capacity issues on the Nexus 4. Never again!

Also, move any downloaded files over to your SD card. I had this problem because I kept downloading music and movies. Also deleted the thumbnail files but it didn't really show that I made space just yet maybe because I haven't disconnected it yet.

For deleting the thumbnails you need to follow the following steps no need to download any app for it.

1) create a new folder on your desktop, inside that folder create a text document and rename it as .file

2) make as many text document files with extension as .file as there are .thumbnail files under your DCIM folder => .thumbnail files and rename the text document files with exactly the same name as .thumbnail files (or you can make some text document files and rename them again and again with the new .thumbnail files).

3) delete all the original .thumbnail files and replace it with the new text document files that you made with the extension .file

Finally! Something that worked. I have trawled the internet for a workaround with this thumbnail problem and I was getting to the point of sending my phone back I was so frustrated with this. I am not a techie in any way shape or form and your instructions were easy to follow and it has actually worked. So relieved. Can't thank you enough :)

One addition: It won't work to put a FILE with the same name as the .thumbdata file!
The system/some apps might remove the ReadOnly attribute and start to recreate the thumbdata files...
The solution that SAID to work (didnt try myself) is to create a FOLDER with the same name instead.
J.F.Y.I

Thanks for this, I spent ages trawling through forums without finding any help. I tried both methods listed on here. I deleted the thumbnail files and created a dummy empty file. However, this fills up again when you next view your gallery. But, so far, by replacing the folder .thumbnails with a file named .thumbnails the gained space is still there after viewing my gallery.
I did this by plugging my phone into my laptop and using wordpad to create the .thumbnails file (it didn't mind creating a file beginning with the . )
next I used file explorer to access and delete then replace the .thumbnails folder with the .thumbnails file.
after safely removing the phone from the laptop, I first took a photo to start the gallery search (it wasn't there when I first looked) It goes a bit weird flashing on and off your photos for a while, then its perfectly ok
so. thanks again.

Hi. The thumdata occupies some 3 GB on my phone. I have a Sony Xperia Z. I have tried deleting the files many times. It's no big deal. But the problem is that no space is freed up. Can anyone help me with this?

Just deleted the .thumbnails folder and got 1.6gb back. I didn't replace the folder or file and tried it out with a pic and it was still gone when I checked. Will try replacing it with a file or folder if it turns up again.
Thanks for the tip!

I did mine with a desktop, because I don't have the gear to do it all on my phone. I tried, but as noted, Android (4.4.2 on a Verizon LG Optimus Exceed 2) won't let me add the period/dot at the front. I opened Notepad, Save As... .thumbdata3[###...] and used All Files format to leave it formatless; 0B file size. I saved it to my SD card, then put that back in my phone and moved to and overwrote in Internal Storage > DCIM > .thumbnails. After only a few minutes, when I took a photo, Android had overwritten them (I have 2 .thumbdata3... files).

Any ideas what went wrong, how to correct? I don't have a Gb tied up with them, but I want my 100+Mb. Thanks.

PS: Maybe link to a copy of one that's worked and folks can just DL and Move if they have the same file name (mine are .thumbdata3--1967290299 and .thumbdata3-1763508120 with "1967..." storing nearly all of it. Note the second file has only one hyphen.)

@FilipC My personal experience is that you can delete them all, and temporarily gain all that space. Android will recreate ones for images still on your device when you view them, the rest will stay deleted.

By creating the Dumbing file, does this mean you have to move your pictures in their manually since the Android phone won't see it...?
1) I have another issue maybe you can help me with ? I have a Galaxy Note 4 and when I use a card reader to check pictures from my Trail Camera's and want to save them in folders I made just for them,, why does it always happen that in a couple hrs I have all the pictures I saved in separate folders for separate Trail Camera's end up in my Gallery ?
2) And when I delete them in my Gallery and go look in my folders, they were Deleted also ? I thought these phones were like computers, but for some reason it's not staying in the folder I intended them to be in ?
Can you help me , Please ?